


maybe in eternity

by lay_me_gently_in_the_cold_dark_earth



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson Fluff, Best Friends, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Percy is a Dork, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-07
Updated: 2019-06-09
Packaged: 2020-04-12 02:33:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19122814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lay_me_gently_in_the_cold_dark_earth/pseuds/lay_me_gently_in_the_cold_dark_earth
Summary: Annabeth and Percy are friends, and just friends. Well, until they're not.





	1. Percy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Annabeth helps Percy with his homework but he gets distracted by her hair.

When Percy had met Annabeth in sixth grade, she had declared the two platonic soulmates. Percy had a younger sister, and Annabeth had an older brother. Percy's favorite color was blue, and Annabeth's was green. Both of them hated math and loved stories, which Annabeth claimed were very important qualities of a soulmate. Percy was thinking about all of this for no specific reason when at Annabeth’s house, working on homework like they always did after school. 

They sat on the floor, their work spread out around them. Percy’s homework was long forgotten. He chewed his pencil absentmindedly, thinking about the soulmates.

"Don't do that," Annabeth scolded. "You'll ruin your teeth and your pencil." Percy frowned.

"But this is hard," he complained. 

"Math?" she asked, turning to face him.  _ Oh, right, the math.  _ He nodded sadly.

"Math." She leaned over, looking at the problem.

"Okay, here's what you do. You divide the whole equation by sin(36) and then you..." 

He watched her as she explained the problem to him, too distracted by her hair to concentrate on math (although when did he ever concentrate on math?). She often complained about her curly hair, but he liked her golden curls. He almost reached out to touch a stray curl, but he caught himself.  _ Stupid _ , he told himself.  _ Hands away from the curls. _

"Percy? Percy!" Annabeth's voice broke his thoughts. He cringed inwardly, knowing that his diverging train of thought had not gone unnoticed.

"Annabeth?" he asked meekly. She sighed, and Percy’s heart twinged. He hated ever seeing her unhappy, and being the one to cause her unhappiness didn’t help.

"Were you paying attention to what I was saying?" she asked. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously.  _ I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m- _

"Um. Maybe not," he said guiltily.  _ I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. _

"I'll explain the problem again, but try to pay attention this time." He watched her explain the problem to him again, careful to listen to what she was saying. 

She helped him finish all of his math homework. And English. Apparently Annabeth-sized problems required Annabeth-sized solutions. 

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I am incapable of writing more than three hundred words at a time unless it's three AM and I'm crying.


	2. Annabeth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Percy distracting Annabeth is good for her overworked self.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Listen to Weak by AJR while you read this.

She loved Percy to death, honestly. But sometimes he was a little slow on the uptake. Of course she noticed him staring at her hair like he’d never seen it before in their four years of friendship. To be fair, she did her fair bit of staring at him, but at least he didn’t notice.

“Movie night?” Percy asked, leaning through the doorway. 

She switched her attention to the science homework she had previously abandoned, pretending to be preoccupied with it. A section of her hair fell from behind her ear. She glared at it. Stupid hair.

“It’s a school night,” she said, staring at the completely blank worksheet. Where had her pencil gone?

“Come on, that’s not due until Friday. You have time.” 

Percy sat down across from her, thwarting her attempts to concentrate on her homework. She was suddenly aware of her deafening heartbeat. Biting the inside of her cheek, she forced herself to read the directions on the page.

“It’s Wednesday.” She read the same sentence for the third time, groaning inwardly when she realized that she had no idea what it said. Curse Percy and his ability to turn her mind into mush.

“You’ve finished all your homework for tomorrow,” he pressed. Which was technically true. 

She looked up from her assignment, and she really couldn’t argue anymore, her resolve dissolving into a puddle. Not when his bright green eyes tugged on her heart, begging her to say yes. She shook her head, smiling.

“Fine.” She stood up, putting the assignment on her bed. She really was weak when it came to him. He grinned, his lopsided smile banishing all thoughts of history from her mind. “What movie?”

“Coco?” 

“I’ll get the popcorn.” 

Yes, Annabeth loved Coco. Percy knew her weaknesses far too well.When you combined Coco, popcorn, and Percy, it really was impossible to resist. And, hey, if she ended up curled next to him on the couch, her head resting on his shoulder, it was her business and no one else's. 

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, this chapter is short. No, they're not going to get longer. Yes, I will keep updating.


	3. Percy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Percy realizes he is in love with Annabeth.

Percy loved and was in love with Annabeth. The realization hit him like a ton of bricks, and he wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.

“I can’t believe you called Mr. Hughes out like that,” he declared, choosing to laugh and keep his revelation to himself. Declaring his love to Annabeth at lunch while full-out sobbing would be a little embarrassing.

“I can’t believe he didn’t see it coming.” Annabeth sat back in her chair, grinning widely. 

During discussion time, Mr. Hughes yelled at two Latina girls for discussing the assigned book in Spanish while almost everyone else talked about everything but the assigned book. Annabeth criticized him in French, switching to German when he scolded her harsh language.

“Those monolinguals never see anything coming,” he said, replaying the scene in his head with a faint smile on his face.

“You’re a monolingual,” Annabeth pointed out, laughing. His heart skipped a beat at the sound of her laugh, and he smiled wider. Her laugh was really his most favorite sound in the world.

“Yeah, and I regret it every time I want to insult teacher to their face.” 

“So all the time?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”  She laughed again, and Percy turned his face to the side hide his lopsided grin. “You know what this moment deserves?” he asked, seeing the vending machine next to him.

“What?” Annabeth raised an eyebrow. 

“A two dollar bag of chips.” 

“What I’ve always wanted,” she deadpanned. “A two dollar bag of mostly air.”

Percy fed two dollars into the vending machine and chose sour cream and onion Lays.

“Why not salt and vinegar?” she asked. Percy wrinkled his nose in exaggerated disgust.

“Because they’re disgusting. I have no idea how you can eat those without shriveling into a sad grape.”

“They’re salty!” she protested, retrieving the chips from the slot in the vending machine.

“They’re salty! They’re acidic! They’ll give you a stroke and heart disease!” 

“Sounds fun. Where do I sign up?” she chirped. Percy sighed dramatically.

“You’re going to give me a stroke,” he declared, laughing.

“That’s the goal,” she said, smiling. And if he was being honest, it would be worth getting a stroke just to see her smile.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I am the sad monolingual constantly surrounded by bilinguals.


	4. Percy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which late-night phone calls are the best kinds of phone calls.

Percy’s phone rang and he jumped, nearly falling out of his seat. He checked the screen. Annabeth. That was weird. She usually didn’t call him, something about hating phone calls. Tired of squinting at his too-bright computer in the dark, he closed his laptop and answered his phone.

“Hey, what’s up?” he asked, almost mumbling the words. He must’ve been more tired than he thought.

“Hating the US education system.” Unlike his, her voice was clear, like she was talking to him at school.

“Even at this hour?” he asked, his voice laced with amusement. “It’s, what, 1:32?”

“Real hatred knows no breaks, only long hours far below minimum wage.” He had to laugh at that one. When Annabeth was tired, she was so much more sarcastic. He loved tired Annabeth.

“So what’s today’s reason for hating the US school system?” he asked, leaning back in his chair.

“APUSH. When it finally succeeds in killing me, you’ll have to be the one to sue College Board.” He laughed softly, not wanting to wake his mom.

“Not the Department of Education?” he asked, not wanting to stop hearing her voice.

“Of course the Department of Education. What do you take me for, a fool?” In the background of the phone call, he heard the faint noise of a pencil scratching on paper, and he smiled.

“Well we both have exciting futures in front of us,” he mused. “You’ll be dead, and I’ll be broke.” Annabeth scoffed.

“Nah, you’ll be rich. You’re going to make so much money off my death.” 

Percy’s smile froze, slowly slipping off of his face. The thought of Annabeth dying was ridiculous, but now he was thinking of it, and it was a terrifying prospect. He bit his lip, trying to forget about it.

“Hey, Percy?” Annabeth’s voice brought him out of his thoughts. “When you get rich, promise me that you won’t forget about me.” Her voice was soft, and he felt the prickling of tears behind his eyes. He blinked hard.

“Never.” And he meant it. He could never forget about her. They had grown up with each other, and he couldn’t imagine a future without her. Without her, there was nothing.

“Good.” There was a lapse in the conversation until Percy remembered something. 

“Hey, Annabeth?” he asked.

“Yeah?” Her voice sounded tired, and he felt guilty. He swallowed.

“Uh, why did you call me? You usually hate phone calls.” Annabeth paused before answering, and with every second that passed, Percy felt even guiltier.

“I don’t know,” she finally said. “I guess I just wanted to hear your voice.” Percy took in a deep breath, listening to the crickets outside of his window.

“Okay.” Annabeth cleared her throat.

“It’s getting late, and I need to finish this.” Percy winced. She sounded pretty tired. “Good night, Seaweed Brain. See you tomorrow.” He nodded, though he knew she couldn’t hear it.

“Good night, Wise Girl.”  _ I love you _ , he thought. He hang up. Later, when he finally fell asleep, thoughts of her blanketed his mind like a warm embrace.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is horrible but the word count is better than the others. Partially inspired by my own IB experiences and wanting to sue the county for back pain.


End file.
